Housing

March 14, 2018

Numerous representatives of the SFPUC and SFFD attended the SF Board of Supervisors’ hearing on Feb. 7 about protecting the west side from fire, including the head of the SFPUC, Harlan Kelly (center, first row) and Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White (second row, right). Photo: Paul Kozakiewicz

By Thomas K. Pendergast

A new plan to expand the emergency water system for firefighting after a major earthquake seems to be gaining support among San Francisco city officials, but questions remain about options yet to be explored.

After the 1906 earthquake and subsequent fire – which killed an estimated 3,000 people, many of them probably incinerated because of 300 broken water mains and 23,000 breaks on service connections in the domestic water supply which shut off water for the ensuing conflagration – the City built the Auxiliary Water Supply System (AWSS), a separate high-pressure water system composed of pipelines and pumps designed to withstand a major temblor.

At the time, most of the City was on the east side of the peninsula, so the original system was only built out as far west as 12th Avenue in the Richmond District, and eventually it was built out to 19th Avenue in the Sunset District.

In the decades that followed, the City expanded westward but the AWSS system did not follow, leaving about 15 neighborhoods vulnerable to a devastating firestorm, including the Outer Richmond and Sunset districts, along with Bayview Heights, Crocker Amazon, Excelsior, Ingleside, Little Hollywood, Mission Terrace, Outer Mission, Sea Cliff, Stonestown and Sunnyside neighborhoods.

After responsibility for the AWSS was transferred from the SF Fire Department to the SF Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) by Mayor Gavin Newsom in 2010 to address a citywide budget deficit, the commission came up with a “flexible hose” system consisting of 12” hoses being dumped from flatbed trucks and manned by Neighborhood Emergency Response Team (NERT) volunteers, a plan which the fire department eventually deemed unworkable.

The commission did explore the idea of fully expanding the AWSS to completely cover the western and southern areas of the City, but balked at its estimated $600 million cost to complete.

In January, the SFPUC announced its latest proposal, consisting of 12 “options” for expanding the emergency water system to the west side, and to complement the 30 new water cisterns that have been installed throughout the western and southern parts of the City.

December 07, 2017

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — An alternate juror who sat through a murder trial in a case that sparked a fierce national debate on immigration said Wednesday he agreed with the jury's decision to acquit a Mexican man of murder in the shooting death of a San Francisco woman two years ago.

According to San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi and photographer Jay A. Martin, this photo shows Jose Ines Garcia Zarate (formerly Lopez) on Pier 14 on May 23, 2015.

Phil Van Stockum, 33, said in an interview with The Associated Press that there was no evidence Jose Ines Garcia Zarate planned or meant to kill Kate Steinle in 2015. Garcia Zarate said he found a gun wrapped in a T-shirt under a seat on a popular pier, and it fired when he picked it up.

The bullet ricocheted off a concrete walkway about 18 feet (5.5 meters) away and flew another 80 feet (24.4 meters) before striking Steinle in the back as she walked with her father and a family friend.

"The ricochet played into heavily whether he had the state of mind to commit murder," said Van Stockum, who didn't participate in jury deliberations. Still, he sat through the entire trial and spoke with jurors after the verdict.

"I was not surprised by the verdict," he said. Prosecutors charged Garcia Zarate with murder, arguing that he planned to kill somebody when he picked up the gun. Van Stockum wrote an essay that Politico.com published Wednesday defending the verdict. He said he felt a need to explain it after President Donald Trump, Steinle's parents and many other commentators and social media users said they were disappointed with the decision.

"They appear to be confused by the verdict," Van Stockum said. "I was not confused."

November 09, 2017

More than 15 San Francisco neighborhoods could burn to the ground due to a lack of water at the SF Fire Department’s disposal after a major earthquake.

A plan to expand the city’s emergency firefighting network was stalled for years because of political interference and one city agency’s refusal to ask voters for the money that is needed to protect neighborhoods in the southern and western parts of the city. Critics say alternative plans being promoted are likely to fail, leaving vulnerable city residents, like seniors and the disabled, to perish in a firestorm of the city’s making or to suffer the consequences of disease and other maladies due to a lack of fresh water after a disaster.

July 19, 2017

Francis Scott Key Annex site in Outer Sunset chosen

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee spoke about teacher housing at Francis Scott Key Elementary School as District 4 Supervisor Katy Tang and SF Planning Director John Rahaim listen, during a June 21st meeting. Photo by Thomas K. Pendergast

By Thomas K. Pendergast

(Originally published in the July, 2017, issue of the Sunset Beacon newspaper, a community newspaper serving the Sunset District of San Francisco.)

A plan to turn the Francis Scott Key Annex in the Outer Sunset District from a dilapidated surplus school property into new housing for teachers is moving forward, as city officials seek ways to keep educators from leaving for less expensive towns.

District 4 Supervisor Katy Tang and SF Mayor Ed Lee announced that somewhere between 135 and 150 apartments will be built on the property, a 1.25-acre site between 42nd and 43rd avenues, and Irving and Judah streets.

“We do have a housing crisis in the City,” Lee said at a recent community meeting. “We’ve started getting better in building low-income housing, and we certainly use money from market- rate housing, but we never really did anything for working class folks. This is our chance because we have a strong economy now.

“Our affordable housing levels are too low for those who are teachers. Maybe some of our educators in the system can qualify, but most of our teachers make just a little bit more than that. They don’t make enough to afford market rate housing,” Lee said.

April 10, 2017

A row of Arthur and Oliver Rousseau-constructed homes on 35th Avenue, at Lawton Street.

Photos and story by Thomas K. Pendergast

In 1932, the country was going through the worst of the Great Depression: with millions of people being unemployed and thousands standing in soup kitchen food lines.

In San Francisco, money for building large scale projects, like hotels, office buildings and apartment houses, had almost dried up, so two brothers in real estate development, Arthur and Oliver Rousseau, turned their attention to building single-family homes in the Sunset District, much of which at the time was still covered with sand dunes.

While Arthur focused on raising money and running the family business, Marian Realty, Oliver designed fanciful and opulent home for middle-class buyers. Together, they built fewer than 200 homes and within three years their business had gone bankrupt, but the homes they built influenced many San Francisco architects who built after them. They were among the first to make built-in garages standard and they popularized central patios, for example.

Today, 93 of their "Rousseau" homes -- concentrated within city blocks on 33rd, 34th and 35th avenues, between Kirkham and Lawton streets -- are under consideration for historic landmark status.

March 13, 2017

San Francisco Supervisor Ahsha Safai (left to right), San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and SF Supervisor Katy Tang enjoy a lighter moment during a Valentine's Day press conference in front of City Hall, where they announced a new proposal to provide incentives for the creation of more affordable housing in the City.

Story and photo by Thomas K. Pendergast

San Francisco supervisors Katy Tang and Ahsha Safai are using a tag-team approach to tackle affordable housing, as Tang will bring her HomeSF program back to the Board of Supervisors in March or April, and Safai introduced an ordinance on the issue.

Tang said Safai’s legislation will match her Home SF program, in that her legislation will apply to working class, middle-income people, defined as having incomes in the range between 60-percent-to-150-percent of the Area Median Income (AMI), so they “go hand in hand.”

“We are trying incentivize developers who are building three or more units where you have to build 30 percent affordable on-site to serve middle-class families, a 40 percent requirement that it’s two-bedrooms or more, and we have some amendments also that we’re bringing forth that will try to make it more family friendly, and also close to transit,” Tang said.

September 26, 2016

As he heads to work, Ruben Calalo (left) gets a kiss from partner Aliren Sunga at the Box City encampment on Seventh Street. The couple are part of a group of immigrants who know each other from the Philippines. Photograph by Lea Suzuki of the San Francisco Chronicle.

With the clunk of a portable toilet plopping down alongside the sidewalk at their shantytown, 20 homeless people in San Francisco began an experiment with the police and a nonprofit agency to try to improve their lives before they inevitably have to tear down their camp.

Kevin Fagan of the San Francisco Chronicle reports the agreement with the Box City campers is that if they can take good care of the toilet and keep their settlement of a dozen hand-built shacks orderly, they’ll earn gift certificates at local businesses, and in two weeks everyone will have a barbecue together.

Nobody’s calling the little spread near the Caltrain tracks at Seventh and Hubbell streets a permanent camp, and no one wants more homeless people to rush in and set up more boxes. It’s just an effort to put a bit of order into an inherently disorderly situation that is replicated daily throughout the city in more than 75 street camps.

“What we’re trying to do is make this a more neighborhood-friendly environment while the camp is here,” said Officer Yvonne Moilanen, one of several police officers who deals especially with homeless camps in the city. “My goal is to let people know I’m not the enemy here, to change the impression that we’re here to only police things. We’re actually here to help.”

August 16, 2016

Commentary by Susan Dyer Reynolds of the Marina Times in San Francisco

Dear SF Tax Collector, You know the $12 million in hotel taxes? Don’t spend it all in one place. Love, Airbnb — From a series of Airbnb ads in San Francisco, October 2015

Last fall, Airbnb was embroiled in a nasty battle to beat Proposition F, which would have strengthened regulations on the short-term home rental start-up and its competitors. The company spent more than $8 million on deceptive ads to scare the daylights out of anyone using the service (“Don’t let the government in your bedroom!”). Proponents of Proposition F spent almost nothing and still got 45 percent of the vote, but ultimately the pricey ad assault paid off and Airbnb defeated the measure.

That was just fine with moderates on the Board of Supervisors like Julie Christensen. Handpicked by Mayor Ed Lee to represent District 3 after David Chiu went to Sacramento, she told me in an interview that Proposition F was nothing more than a way to “stick it” to Airbnb. She and other supervisors also claimed that further regulating the vacation rental start-up would stifle their innovation, which is just plain malarkey — let’s not forget that Apple managed to invent the iPhone while following the same pesky rules as any other for-profit company. The bottom line is that Airbnb and other “sharing economy” upstarts (yes, I’m talking to you, Uber) have no interest in following rules, because their very business model depends on breaking them.

August 13, 2016

Kevin Gerber, President and CEO of Episcopal Senior Communities, talks about Supervisor Katy Tang's new housing plan at a recent community meeting she hosted.

Story and photos by Thomas K. Pendergast

(Originally posted on August 11, 2016, at SFBay, a news website for the San Francisco Bay Area.)

San Francisco Supervisor Katy Tang is floating a new housing scheme to address the City’s chronic shortage by pairing up people who need housing with those who have an extra room available.

At a community meeting Wednesday, Tang said that through participation in the program, homeowners and home-seekers will voluntarily choose each other, because Home Match is “not a housing placement service.”

Instead, Home Match would figure out who best would be paired up with each other. Tang said:

“That’s something that you don’t get from something like a Craigslist or going out to look for rental units yourself on your own.”

The program was put in the City budget this year, drawing $230,000 annually from the general fund on an ongoing basis, and will be funded through the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development at their discretion.